Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2009 (2009), Article ID 471540, 18 pages
doi:10.1155/2009/471540
Research Article

An LPV Fractional Model for Canal Control

Rubén Martínez-González,1 Yolanda Bolea,1 Antoni Grau,1 and Herminio Martínez-García2

1Automatic Control Department, Technical University of Catalonia, Pau Gargallo 5, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
2Electronics Engineering Department, Technical University of Catalonia, c/Urgell 187, 08036 Barcelona, Spain

Received 6 February 2009; Revised 27 April 2009; Accepted 24 May 2009

Academic Editor: José Roberto Castilho Piqueira

Copyright © 2009 Rubén Martínez-González et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

An LPV rational order control model of an irrigation canal is derived from system identification experiments. This model is experimentally obtained by using the described LPV fractional identification procedure. This procedure consists of the identification of a rational order model in each operation point in an experimental test canal. Global LPV model is obtained from polynomial interpolation of local model parameters. Validation results demonstrate that rational order models are more accurate than integer order models. Therefore rational order control models have an important role to play in management and efficient use of water resources.